Big Drop

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a biotech company that offers an ultra-sensitive biomarker detection platform. My position within the company is the global marketing and communications manager. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

Our biggest challenge was how our website was translating to our customers as well as investors. It wasn’t an easy-flowing site. We needed to improve our website to increase leads generated and company awareness. Our marketing team is also small, so we needed to outsource as much responsibility as possible for the web platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Right now, they’re helping us maintain our website. We separated the work into a few phases to maximize the functionality of our current site. However, I do have them building a new site. Currently, they’re maintaining our Drupal site, but we’re converting to WordPress over time. We’re currently in the design phase of that project.

What is the team composition?

The team is sizable. For site maintenance, we have three resources. That includes an overall account manager who’s been able to connect our two separate objectives. In terms of development, we’ll likely have about 5–6 resources working for us on their end. 

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We ran a Google search for the top WordPress developers in the United States specifically within the biotech industry. My digital strategist initially pulled 5–6 potential service providers that they thought would be compatible with us. We spoke with each company and had them put together proposals. Big Drop impressed us because they knew our technology and competitors before jumping on their first call with us. 

They understood our brand voice, so it was clear that they would take the steps needed to understand our company. Our biggest reason for choosing them was their willingness to put the time in to learn about our business.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$200,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the work mid-way through 2019, and our new site is set to go live in March 2020. It’s an ongoing project.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Part of the process was presenting sites that we liked to their team, and they were able to conceptualize our goals from there. It’s been easy to work with them from start to finish. It was very reassuring to know that they’re giving the project their undivided attention, even when we can’t. 

They function as an extension of our team as opposed to a third-party agency. They provide recommendations to help us succeed, which has been a refreshing change. It’s been stress-free because they clearly know what they’re doing. Our account manager is great about explaining Drupal and what it would take to implement our desired changes. They educated us, which boosted our experience as well.

How did Big Drop perform from a project management standpoint?

Having a single person oversee everything keeps us from having to repeat ourselves across teams. They’re pretty active on email and a third-party platform that’s allowed us to track their progress. We can also add notes to that section, so that’s improved communication and transparency as well.

They understand that email is the best way to reach us, especially given our limited headcount. The team is always willing to hop on the phone if I don’t understand something. I can give them a call and rely on them to get the project done.   

What did you find most impressive about them?

They function as an extension of our team, working with us even when things become complicated. Their ability to understand the company, technology, and industry has been a huge benefit to us. They’ve also accommodated our hectic schedule and changing deadlines. They do everything possible to meet their deadlines, even if we delay them. I haven’t found that in any other company.

They’re also open with communication and aren’t afraid to provide us with feedback. It’s been a great experience, and we plan to keep using them for site maintenance. I don’t ever see our partnership ending because of their incredible patience and willingness to accommodate us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a well-oiled machine. Communication has been constant. Even when people are out sick, others seamlessly take on their responsibilities. We’ve also noticed that their past and current clients are very happy with their services, which speaks volumes. That was reassuring, especially at the beginning of our process. I can’t say there’s anything I would change.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that they understand your goals and industry. That helped us right out the gate, alleviating work we had to do on our end. I’d also recommend making yourself available to speak to Big Drop when you can. In an ideal world, the customer should be more agile and available to their partner for such a large project. Be mindful of the hard work that you’re putting in.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an institutional and retirement plans consulting firm that works with oversight management of retirement plans. That helps to improve outcomes for participants and their employees. I work specifically as a business manager, working in marketing and sales to bring in new business and meet strategic objectives. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We wanted to revamp our website. Our prior platform was nearly 10 years old and completely out of date. More importantly, it was not optimized and couldn’t attract new leads.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They drove the entire process, starting the build from scratch. We needed someone to hold our hand from point A to point B. They were able to guide us through the entire process and figure out what we needed from the site. Using that structure, they handled all aspects of the development, steered by our input. 

The final solution is a custom-built WordPress website. They also used programs to create wireframes and develop the product. At this point,  we have them on ongoing retainer for updates and maintenance. 

What is the team composition?

There were between 6–7 resources working on the site. We had an overall project manager and a more hands-on project manager. There was a turnover in that second role. In addition to the project managers, we also worked with designers and developers. 

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We asked around our firm for recommendations and ran general Google searches. Their team was located close to us, so we put them on our list of options. We asked for proposals from seven organizations and held interviews both over the phone and in-person. After narrowing it down to two service providers, we felt that Big Drop would be the best fit for the job. We ended up hiring them.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, our total investment has been between $40,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in October 2018, and the site first launched in November 2019. The delay was on our end. They were ready to launch the site in June 2019, but we spend some time internally on content migration. Big Drop’s work took between 6–9 months. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

It’s still early days for us, but the internal team is very pleased with the aesthetics and functionality of the site. It visually represents our organization well. From the backend, the solution is easy to use and update.  

How did Big Drop perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a design app that allowed them to build and share their layout ideas with us without anything going live. That way, we were able to discuss and opine on them. They also offered us a survey in the early stages of the project, which allowed us to rank example sites and provide feedback on hypothetical options. That focused their team on our interests, helping them gauge our design preferences. 

It was also nice to have them nearby, knowing that we could simply take a train and collaborate in-person. In actuality, we mostly used technology to communicate. So, the location didn’t make a huge difference in the end. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re thrilled with the platform. It was a tremendous undertaking, and we’re pleased with the results.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

With the turnover of project managers, there were too many cooks in the kitchen at times. There were times during that phase of the process that I wasn’t sure who was overseeing what. That’s the only negative I can think of, though. Overall, it was a great experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re experts, so you can trust their judgments. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own Nanook Canvas G.P., a manufacturer of custom photo canvas prints.

For what projects/services did your company hire Big Drop?

Our website had a high bounce rate, didn’t convert, and was not mobile-friendly. We engaged Big Drop to develop a new website that would solve these issues and give us an edge over the competition.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted the new site to be modern, engaging, accessible, mobile-responsive, and SEO-friendly. We expected higher conversion rates and a timely delivery that complied with our specifications.

How did you select this vendor?

We found Big Drop online. They were very responsive and seemed to be capable. Though the price was higher than we preferred, the team offered a “full package” that we decided to invest in.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Big Drop created designs after our initial discussions. Once we approved the mock-ups, the team started the development phase. However, we proceeded to development without completing the second part of the design approval form, which detailed the site’s functionalities—preview, design, tools, etc. We ended the relationship before final delivery.

What was the team composition?

The team included several resources and multiple project managers.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project started well, but development took longer than expected. Big Drop’s “full package” contract promised a 6–8-month timeline. However, delays elongated the engagement to two years, at which point the team said they needed another 15–18 to finish the site. Big Drop developed core features without discussing them in full detail. Most aspects of the build did not comply with our feedback notes. They asked for more money that we originally agreed to pay. That felt unprofessional because we were already making compromises in an attempt to salvage the project. We had to end the relationship prior to final delivery because they made us choose between extra fees or accepting an unfinished site with several errors.

By the end, we were exhausted, frustrated, and stressed out. Since our previous site didn’t convert, we had stopped all marketing until the new site would be ready. But what’s worse, we have to take this issue to court to reach an appropriate settlement; Big Drop had agreed to settle, but their terms were unacceptable.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their project management looked impressive on paper, but the team never met their own milestones. The turnover with project managers caused several frustrations; we had to explain things over and over again. That was neither cost-effective nor time-efficient.

Are there any areas for improvement?

In addition to estimates and project management, Big Drop needs to improve how they handle situations when things go wrong. We understand errors and unexpected issues occur, but the team could have done more to make the problems right for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of a concealed carry holster company. We have one location where we manufacture and sell holsters.

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We were looking for a company to design a website for us. Since it's an unusual product, our biggest challenge was to develop a checkout system. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a WordPress website for me and developed an outstanding front page where they presented everything my customers need to know. They researched my business and went above and beyond to understand my product. The website has answers to all the common questions. When I go over those questions with my customers on the phone, 100% of them make a purchase, so putting the key points on the website was a genius move. Setting up the checkout system was a complex process because our holsters have thousands of configurations–different measurements and colors–for guns and lasers, but they did an excellent job. 

What is the team composition? 

I worked with the design team and the development team. 

How did you come to work with them?

I've been doing research for years, looking for the right company to build my website. After talking to Big Drop, I trusted them to create a functional website and take care of the aesthetic side

How much have you invested with them?

I spent $46,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

I worked with them from June 2017–January 2018. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

During the year before the website launch, I slowly dropped advertising in anticipation of better returns on ad investment. By the time of launch in January 2018, traffic was at its bare minimum, as were sales. At the first day of the launch, sales instantly quadrupled! The new checkout system makes it fun for customers to buy my products.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint? 

They were amazing. I wrote them a personal thank you note. Whenever I asked a question, they always knew the answer to it. They were extremely responsive and addressed any issues or bugs immediately. I also wrote a public review on Google commending them on their work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a top-level team and I can't imagine that anyone can be better. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the VP of operations at a homeowner insurance company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We were looking to address our scalability and redundancy. We were also looking for graphic design and marketing expertise. We wanted a hosted solution to manage our growing insurance companies. In order to be responsive to hurricanes in Florida, we need important touch points for our customers available 24/7, such as uptime and claim report functionality. A local vendor managed our website for the past 5 years, but our organization grew rapidly in that time. We needed a more reliable, redundant, and scalable platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The objective was to first move our existing platform from the old vendor to Big Drop. Once that was completed, we added resources, cleaned the webpage, made it more user-friendly, and found nuances that we could improve upon. Since they absorbed the web page, they updated website content and added splash screens. A lot of their work was behind the scenes.

We're currently speaking with them about designing an entirely new skin for the website's look, feel, and user experience. They also offer other marketing services that I'm exploring as well.

What is the team dynamic?

I've communicated with at least 4 individuals at Big Drop who have addressed the project needs.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We had a list of criteria that a new vendor must have to bring us to the next level such as best practices, scalability, and backups. Big Drop met all of our requirements.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $20,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since 2016.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

When Hurricane Irma hit Florida, the website had a surge of visits. Pre-landfall, we made sure Big Drop added resources to our website. It was amazing how many individuals went to that webpage, filed a claim, or made sure their insurance was up to date, etc.

How did Big Drop perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. They're methodical; they schedule and follow through. They're a professional firm.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I love that they offer multiple services. They can host a website and manage it, but they also do marketing spins, social media, and graphic design. It's a one-stop shop, and I appreciate their expertise. Their attentiveness to requests and follow through shine.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I have nothing negative to say.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know that you're in good hands. They're experts at their trade. It was refreshing and all positive. Do your research and get comparable quotes. We enjoyed the experience.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of the Financial Communication Society, which is a national not-for-profit trade association for financial marketers. We’ve been in business since 1967; our business model is that we run content-driven live events that bring together financial marketers and their industry partners.

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

One of the critical things for our business model is having a highly functioning website. About three years ago, we started trying to bring our website into the 21^st century and engaged a web firm out of Chicago. We got an okay-looking website out of it, but we never went a full week without there being some sort of issue. After about a year and a half, I got a cue from the board to spend money on finding a new agency and improving that.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a relatively complicated website. Because we sell tickets to our various events there’s an e-commerce component, but we layer on top of that a subscription model. If you’re a dues-paying member, then you get discounted pricing on all of our events. Those two things working together creates a relatively complicated background for the websites. Wordpress, which had been our platform of choice, wasn’t able to deal with our needs. On January 23^rd, we launched the website. They had to deal with the incumbent agency who lost the job, and they were really good with that. Very smooth transition. Knock on wood, we haven’t had a single problem. Granted, it’s still a little early in the game, but we’ve done four events so far and we haven’t had one issue. What we built is incredibly well received by our members.

We went into this identifying some improvements on design and navigation and functionality, but Big Drop really gave us so many additional ideas on how to make it a more valuable tool for our members. An example of that was that we now offer members a dashboard where they can go in and see all of their prior purchases, print out receipts, download spreadsheets of their purchases. They created a member directory so you can see people’s photos. These were things we hadn’t thought were possible. They created a user experience that’s very smart and reasonable.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We did an agency search. The agency that had designed our previous website was in the mix, but they frankly couldn’t convince us that they suddenly knew how to fix things and deal with our complicated needs. So we wound up speaking with nine agencies. One came back to us and said they didn’t think we had enough money to afford them, thank you very much. Another one was a one-man shop, which we dismissed out of hand. The other seven had project estimates ranging from $17,000 to &170,000. We got rid of the outliers and wound up speaking with three who were middle-of-the-road.

Based on in-person interviews, we decided to go with Big Drop. From their initial conversation, they simply brought so many additional ideas to the table. We didn’t even think that we were looking for that, but we were very impressed. They also gave us a very high level of confidence that they would be able to build what we need and most importantly, maintain it. That’s exactly what we did.

How much have you invested with BigDrop?

Their initial bid was in the $40,000-$60,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started negotiating late last year, but we went into review in early 2016. We hired them in June or July. They’re still supporting the site, but it’s live.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I trust them: I know that I go to bed at night and I’m not going to wake up in the morning with some user sending me an email saying that the website is down or they can’t log in, which is the experience I had with the prior agency. I couldn’t go a week without some snafu. I have a very high level of confidence with Big Drop. As part of their maintenance package, they have all of these alerts built in, which have not been triggered. If something were to go wrong on the Big Drop site, I’m confident they’re going to know about it before a user comes and tells me.

What did you find most impressive about Big Drop?

We might suggest something and they will always keep us straight about what’s the best practice in the industry. A lot of their back-office stuff is overseas, and that was a concern for us because of time zones. That hasn’t been an issue at all. I’m in New York, and when I’ve asked for East Coast time zone support, it’s always been there.

I have been able to take advantage of the seven-hour difference with the development guys, because I’ll send them a list of things that I want to be updated or changed, and I know that when I come into the office the next day, all of those things are taken care of. We jump on phone calls all the time – when it’s needed – and they’re very receptive. The maintenance package I pay is less than the retainer I paid at the prior agency, which frankly moaned each month about how we were spending more hours each month than what their retainer covered.

Are there any areas Big Drop could improve?

There have been times where they’ve written a little web text or email communication where the American English was not perfect. Part of it was that I should have been doing that writing, but that’s one thing I’ll ding them for.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Big Drop?

After I engaged with them, I went through a series of project managers. The first one sets the stage. In our case, she worked with us to figure out exactly what we wanted to build. Once she had that mapped out, she brought in a design manager who worked out how it should look. He built the wireframes. And then ultimately there was the development project manager who figured out how to code everything. If I were to do this all again, I would want the development person and the design person to sit in the very first meeting so that when I described my dream product, those things would happen. Sometimes I thought of stuff that ultimately wasn’t going to make sense, and it would have been better to learn that early on. It wouldn’t have changed anything either in the pricing or the timing; it would have just managed my expectations a little bit. Likewise, there was much more that they brought to the table than they would have taken off my wish list, and if I had their input earlier on, I probably could have maximized the experience a little more. This is in no way a negative; I’ve just learned a more optimal way to get more out of Big Drop.

Please describe your organization.

Skybuds produces truly wireless earbuds. We are a startup scheduled to release a product at the end of the summer.

What is your position?

I am the head of operations within the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We needed help in developing an e-commerce site for the company, which would act as our main sales channel.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

It was a collaborative effort with other agencies too, but Big Drop designed and built our website. We also worked with a branding agency which helped with much of the design.

They were very patient with us. When we initially approached Big Drop, we only had a few ideas of what the website would look like. They gave us the best designers and helped in creating it from scratch. We had no e-commerce experience when we first started. We started off with a WordPress site on which bluCommerce was plugged-in. As we learned more about the importance of managing customer data, we requested switching to a Magento platform. Big Drop assigned their best Magento developer, who worked on the backend elements. The design elements, which were made by our branding agency, were also given to Big Drop. They worked on the frontend elements based on that material.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We wanted to work with a New York-based company. We searched Google and looked at the portfolios of the various companies which came up. Big Drop had built very beautiful, artistic websites for many different people, which resonated with us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Sorry, this is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was started in May of 2015. We are now fine-tuning the work and hope to launch the site within a month. We have been in the process of figuring out our marketing approach, and as such, we asked our branding agency to make additional changes. It didn't make sense for Big Drop to reserve some of their development resources for us, given that we had no clear direction for marketing.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our website's functionalities are great. I asked a friend who is a Magento developer to review the code, and he told me that it was very solid. We're very happy with Big Drop's work and are excited to launch our website this summer.

How did Big Drop perform from a project management standpoint?

Big Drop was very responsive throughout the project. I knew that I could get in touch with our project manager at any point in time. They used many offshore developers. Ours were in Ukraine, but I never knew the difference in terms of communication.

Any emails sent to Big Drop will have a reply within the hour. They work after business hours, given that the development team is in Ukraine. We were always made to feel like ours was the only project on which Big Drop was working. I was never put on hold when I had an inquiry.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

I haven't worked with many web development companies. Even though we were assigned a project manager by Big Drop, if I couldn't get in touch with him, I always had access to their owner. He made sure that everything was handled as fast as possible. I find the fact that Big Drop's owner is actively working on multiple projects and the fact that he stayed in contact with us to be a nice touch.

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

Because there has been a bit of a language barrier, we had to be very clear in our emails. A lot can be lost in translation, and I found that Big Drop's team can sometimes take directions literally. They always met us halfway though.

Please describe your organization.

We are an intellectual property strategy and valuation consulting firm.

What is your role at the company?

I am the founder and president.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We needed a new website to attract business and to display media, such as articles and events, and information about services.

What were your company's business goals for the project?

We wanted to get a state-of-the-art, visually appealing website, as well as a new logo. 

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

It was for web design, logo design, SEO [search engine optimization] strategy, and a professional look and feel.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We looked at online reviews and their portfolio of work, and selected them from three other providers based on their responsiveness to our proposal and their quality of work.

What is the status of this engagement?

It completed about two years ago [2014].

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have received great traction from the work with Big Drop. The percentage of business resulting from people finding us online has increased to more than 50 percent of the business in an industry that is traditionally a referral type. We are showing up on the first page in Google organic searches for key search keywords, resulting in great conversion of people finding the site and calling in or submitting a contact request.

How did Big Drop perform?

They gave us excellent customer service and a great-looking website, as well as a fantastic new logo and very effective SEO.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

I don't work with software or web designers on a regular basis. This is a relatively new company and, since I am the founder, I get involved in web design. Working with Big Drop was a very good experience for me in general.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

I would have created fewer pages and made the pages shorter, but that has nothing to do with Big Drop. They followed our instructions and have been very responsive to all our changes.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an Operations Specialist at a medical marijuana dispensary serving essentially all medically qualified medical marijuana patients in Massachusetts. I handle all of the online communication that comes our way via email, social media and competitor sites. I’ve been in charge of maintaining our entire website through Big Drop. I’ve been sort of the liaison between us and Big Drop.

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We use and update our website every day; it’s not something we set up and forget about. The biggest reason for our online presence is our menu. We have 10-12 different strains of marijuana and those change daily, and we have over 150 infused products to offer our patients. We update our menu every single night for the next day, so we see upwards of 4,000 site visits daily. We also use our website for our careers page; this is a growing industry and people want to join our team, so we have an active career portal for the company. We also update our site with news and events about what we’re doing as a company through our philanthropy group. But primarily we needed our website to connect patients to resources because the process of being a medical marijuana patient can be incredibly confusing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Big Drop helped design and develop the website. They help with any new requests we might need. I have some background with Wordpress from previous jobs, but working with them has been really great for doing everything from complex tasks to simple things I don’t have time for in my day. I don’t know if other websites are as complicated as ours, but they’ve handled everything really nicely.

We do our daily menu update, but they’re always available if we run into a glitch or if we need more complicated things. They’re mostly backup unless we need to bring them on for larger things like reworking our careers page, which they were able to bang out in a couple of days. Actually, the project manager recently reached out to us to make sure everything was okay, and we were like, “Yeah, everything is working great, the site is perfect!” They’re great about being proactive like that.

How much have you invested with Big Drop?

To be honest, I don’t know. It started with another member of the company who created the vision and started to conversation with them, and I just came in to execute the project. I’ve been the liaison ever since, but I’m not entirely sure about the price range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with Big Drop since the end of 2015, so it’s been a little over a year.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They’ve been great. The greatest feature that they set up for us was Google Analytics. They set up the pages to be easy to read, and in terms of that, they’ve been great. We see about 4,000 visitors to the site, but that number increases monthly. Theoretically, every patient is looking on our site an average of every four days. That’s exciting for us; we’re getting a lot of exposure. We get a lot of members to the site partly because we’re one of the biggest dispensaries in Massachusetts, but we’re also really active with our marketing and everything. I think Big Drop has been a big part of that. They’ve made our site straightforward and easy.

How did BigDrop perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really hard-working. I don’t know if they do this for everyone, but they’ve been extremely helpful for us in emergency situations. Garry was so kind. He gave me his personal cell phone number and said, “If you need anything, give us a call.” I had his team working on the weekend one time.

They just go above and beyond your average development company. Sometimes it’s hard because they work kind of quirky hours, so if we don’t get a request in super early it can be a bummer, but they’ve also been great about emergency situations. Somehow he always finds someone to help us out. Danil, our project manager has been super responsive. He will answer every single email right away. He always wants to set up Zoom meetings to make sure that our visions are on the same page. Work with Danil has been awesome. He has his act together and he’s super organized. Boris, the other manager, is really proactive about making sure things are okay with us.

What did you find most impressive about Big Drop?

I can’t speak highly enough of their ethic and their project managers. Garry’s an awesome dude to work with. They’ve continued to produce work that we’re really happy with. They make sure it looks good on every platform. We can be really particular about that. We’ll say, “It doesn’t look good on a 2014 MacBook Air,” and they’ll dive in and make sure it’s a quality site on that platform in particular.

Are there any areas Big Drop could improve?

I’m not going to lie: in the beginning, we went through several project managers, and they’re no longer with the company. We can have a lot of requests and sometimes we’ve really pushed them to work hard, and in the beginning, the work just wasn’t being produced. Now it’s a complete turnaround. I’ve been so pleased working with our latest project manager. Other than that, the only thing is they typically work from 4 AM to noon, which is fine unless the site crashes later in the day.

That’s when I have to find Garry and he has to scramble to find somebody. It would be better if they had a local developer who could work different hours, or an on-call person for the weekends. But that’s special treatment stuff; I don’t think it’s a huge detriment to their organization. It would just be convenient.

Please describe your organization.

We are a small team of four full-time employees working as jury consultants. We work within the litigation industry offering mock-trial research, witness preparation, and jury selection in support of civil defense cases. Our main office is in Chicago, and we have offices in Houston and Lexington. We travel to projects nationwide.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Drop?

We were looking to rebrand our logo and website.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Big Drop developed our site using WordPress. It was my first time working with the platform, and it proved to be a much better solution than the one we were previously using.

How did you come to work with Big Drop?

We shopped around and were intrigued by Big Drop. They had won an award for being one of the top 10 design firms in the nation. We liked their website's style and wanted to capture that for ourselves. We work in a bit of a staunch, almost dry industry. We work with patent attorneys and other serious individuals. We do a very serious job, but also want to think that we bring in a fun side to the industry. Big Drop did a great job in capturing that.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost was between $20,000-30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March of 2015. The website was launched in May, making it a three-month project. We've since worked on two revisions of the site.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The experience with Big Drop has been overall very positive. It was a rigorous process, and we've constantly received compliments as a result of it. The site is very responsive.

What distinguishes Big Drop from other providers?

We are a small company, and everyone has an opinion. Avoiding the "too many cooks in the kitchen" scenario was a challenge for us. Big Drop made sure that we were all pleased in the end.

We had some very specific requests, so Big Drop pushed back on us on a few occasions, letting us know that certain elements wouldn't work and explained why. I liked the consultation part of the process.

Is there anything Big Drop could have improved or done differently?

In the design phase, there were a few timing issues, given that some of their team is located in Europe. It wasn't a huge deal, but we were pushing them to get the work done quickly. Their responsiveness was a bit slower than we would have wanted during that phase.